Forget everything you think you know about Baywatch star Pamela Anderson – as her new Netflix documentary reveals, there is so much more to the former Playboy model than the tabloid headlines – or the sex-tape story dramatised in Disney+ series Pam & Tommy – would lead you to believe.
The insightful Pamela: A Love Story is Canadian-born Pamela Denise Anderson's chance to tell her own story (she has also written a memoir, Love, Pamela, to coincide with the Netflix documentary), as she reads from her own diaries about her eventful life, beginning with her traumatic childhood (she was raped and sexually abused at a young age, and grew up in a household with an explosively-tempered father) and how she was discovered at a football game and head-hunted by Playboy.
Using footage from her childhood and her Playboy modelling days – she recently revealed in an interview with the Sunday Times that Hugh Hefner was the only person to treat her with complete respect – the documentary also features all those moments we think we know all about but, in fact, only know the headlines.
There's her marriage to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee just four days after they first met, the theft and broadcast of their sex tape, the cinematic flop she starred in, Barb Wire – all revisited with Pamela quietly explaining what actually happened while clips of late-night TV hosts mocking her remind us how shockingly she has been treated over the years.
As the revealing documentary progresses, Pamela briefly touches on her Baywatch career, her friendship with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and her campaign work with PETA (though we could have done with more information on all of those, especially the controversial Assange), and shares home videos from her life not just with us viewers, but also with her two grown-up sons, Brandon and Dylan.
The cameras also follow her as she takes on one of her biggest challenges – the role of Roxie in the Broadway production of Chicago in 2022 – and gives glimpses of her life at her Canadian home where she now lives – the same home that she grew up in (her parents live around the corner).
Of course, Pamela: A Love Story can’t include every aspect of the 55-year-old’s life, but while Pamela talks about her best-known romances, including marriages to Kid Rock (whom she knew by his real name, the far more ordinary 'Bob') and poker player Rick Salomon (whom she married twice), and relationships with surfer Kelly Slater and actors Dean Cain and Scott Baio, there is one notable relationship that she doesn’t mention at all.
On January 20, 2020, Pamela surprised everyone when she announced that she had married Hollywood producer Jon Peters. The couple had actually known each other for years, having met at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles and dated in the 1980s.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Peters talked about the first time he met Pamela. "I walked in and saw this little angel sitting at the bar. It was Pammy. She was like 19. I knew she would be a big star. We ended up living together." (In a recent chat with Variety, Peters confirmed that although he gave Pamela clothes, jewellery and cars during this period, their relationship was platonic).
Peters, who is best known as the producer of movies including A Star Is Born (both the 1976 and 2018 versions), 1989's Batman and Superman Returns, was 22 years older than Pamela, and already had a string of relationships behind him, including a long-running one with Barbra Streisand. His relationship with Pamela didn't last long, possibly due to the age difference, but the pair remained friends in the years before their surprise wedding.
"Pamela has never seen her full potential as an artist," Peters told The Hollywood Reporter the day after their wedding was announced. "She has yet to shine in a real way. There is much more to her than meets the eye, or I wouldn't love her so much.
"There are beautiful girls everywhere. I could have my pick, but – for 35 years – I've only wanted Pamela. She makes me wild – in a good way. She inspires me. I protect her and treat her the way she deserves to be treated."
However, just 12 days after their January wedding (and Pamela's posting of a photo of the happy couple on social media, via People), Pamela announced on February 1, 2020 that she and Jon Peters had separated.
Pamela later claimed that the couple had never been legally married, and their wedding was actually a "bizarre theatrical lunch" and no hard feelings were involved.
Since Pamela doesn’t mention her brief marriage to Jon Peters in Pamela: A Love Story, what exactly went on at the start of 2020 remains a mystery, and could probably make a fascinating documentary all by itself.
Peters did recently speak about their current relationship to Variety. "I will always love Pamela, always in my heart," he said.
"As a matter of fact, I left her $10 million in my will. And she doesn't even know that. Nobody knows that. I'm just saying it for the first time with you. I probably shouldn't be saying it. So that's for her, whether she needs it or not."
Pamela: A Love Story is available to stream on Netflix now.
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